quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
Personally I don''t think the X-box spec was impressive enough for something that is more than a year away (if Microsoft is able to ship on time that is). The only thing that really speaks in favour of the X-box is that it will supposedly be easier for Windows developers to write games for the MS console than for any of the other consoles.

Sure, it might not be impressive when compared against the PCs that will be out a year from now, but that''s not its competition. PS2, Dreamcast, and Dolphin will all pale in comparision to tomorrow''s PC.

But then, they''ll all (all four, I mean) be dedicated game machines, not having to give up resources to greedy GUIs. Plus they have set hardware specs so more time can be spent on gameplay design rather than hardware testing.

Jesse Chounard

I''m highly excited about the X-box. At its highest ''claimed'' speed it can push 300,000,000 bare tri''s(100,000,000 full effects). That is power. Now it may not reach those numbers, but if it comes anywhere near it, I don''t see the PC being as powerful when it comes out.

The demo''s running at GDC were on the NV15 chipset. Right now the NV15 can only push 30mil(??) tri''s. I just can''t see Nvidia releasing anything as powerful as the X-box in their next two PC cards. Maybe ATI or 3Dfx w/gigapixel can do something but it seems a daunting task.

The only thing I don''t care for about the X-box is all of these Devs that seem so eager to do a 3rdPP game for these uberconsoles. Grrrr.... Halo=No Thanks!!

Flame ON!

quote: Original post by Homer Schmodkiff
The only thing I don''t care for about the X-box is all of these Devs that seem so eager to do a 3rdPP game for these uberconsoles. Grrrr.... Halo=No Thanks!!

Huh? You don''t want Halo? I''d sell my unborn children for that game. (Okay.. that''s a little much, perhaps. Maybe only one of their arms. )

Jesse Chounard

You read it right, /me shakes head at Bungie

I''ll just play Tribes2 until someone beats out Halo with a FPS mode game.(You know it will happen...please oh please oh please)

And hey, if they put a FPS mode in Halo, I''ll be first in line at EBWorld to pick it up

Why do so many people dislike Microsoft? Sure, they bitch moan and complain about ''how many times it''s crashed on me when trying to get into a porn site!'', but I mean REALLY. If any of you think you''re smart enough to revolutionize the computer world, then go ahead and do it already. Some of you say that MS makes bad software. If they made bad software, where would they be? Certainly not where they are now. MS is a great company. They have *defined* the computer world, and you hate MS because....? They have so much money and you don''t? They make better software then you could ever possibly create? They''re BETTER than you?

They''re not necessarily better than you, but if you think MS makes bad software and they just plain suck, you need to tighten those bolts in your head and take a long walk off a short bridge. Does anyone have any VALID reasons for disliking MS?? I''m interested to see where this is header.

As for MS making a console, I think that''s great! The hardware that makes up the XBox beats the pants out of Dreamcast, PS2 and probably Nintendo Dolphin. It can process 3 trillion functions (I''m not too sure about that ''functions'' part, but I''m sure it can do 3 trillion of something or other! ). I think the XBox looks terrific, and will be an awesome console. Have any of you seen the lineup of developers that have signed on? Crazy amounts! The think the XBox will be very successful, except for the people who are too half-witted to realize that MS is, in fact, a good company.

My harmless 2cents. I''m up for flames, boys and girls.

'I'm sorry Dave. I'm Afraid I can't let you do that...'

quote: Original post by Fredric
Why do so many people dislike Microsoft?

Why do people hate anyone/company that broke the law? That''s right, Microsoft has ILLEGAL practices, bottom line.

quote:
Sure, they bitch moan and complain about ''how many times it''s crashed on me when trying to get into a porn site!'', but I mean REALLY. If any of you think you''re smart enough to revolutionize the computer world, then go ahead and do it already. Some of you say that MS makes bad software. If they made bad software, where would they be? Certainly not where they are now.

Well, let''s see. Just as an example, heard of the ILOVEYOU virus? Yes, the one that cost companies around the world billions. It''s all thanks to Microsoft. They delibrately set up VB and Outlook this way. To bad they don''t give a damn about security.

quote:
MS is a great company. They have *defined* the computer world, and you hate MS because....?

Stolen, baught, proprietized, monopolized are all better adjetives than defined.

quote:
They have so much money and you don''t? They make better software then you could ever possibly create? They''re BETTER than you? They''re not necessarily better than you, but if you think MS makes bad software and they just plain suck, you need to tighten those bolts in your head and take a long walk off a short bridge. Does anyone have any VALID reasons for disliking MS?? I''m interested to see where this is header.

Yes, many people do. Bad security, paying for bug fixes, overpriced products, too many bugs/memory leaks, attempting to proprietize everything, breaking the law. I hope that is enough to show why I, and many other informed people, are not pleased with Microsoft. It''s funny how some people defend Microsoft so much when they obviously
-Know next to nothing about MS''s history
-Don''t know anything about it''s illegal behavior
-Have hardly touched another OS/Word Processor/IDE
As a business, Microsoft is the best. They break the law, overcharge, make barely acceptable products and yet the masses blindly follow.

quote:
As for MS making a console, I think that''s great! The hardware that makes up the XBox beats the pants out of Dreamcast, PS2 and probably Nintendo Dolphin. It can process 3 trillion functions (I''m not too sure about that ''functions'' part, but I''m sure it can do 3 trillion of something or other! ). I think the XBox looks terrific, and will be an awesome console. Have any of you seen the lineup of developers that have signed on? Crazy amounts! The think the XBox will be very successful, except for the people who are too half-witted to realize that MS is, in fact, a good company.

My harmless 2cents. I''m up for flames, boys and girls.

I think you should do a bit more reading about the various other consoles before you go making comparisions like that. I don''t have exact details, but I know that the above about consoles was complete BS.
Although Microsoft has not written many games, they have published quite a few good ones.

Mike

Ahh, well the above is me

Mike

Edited by - Vetinari on May 12, 2000 11:04:34 PM

Anonymous Poster-
First of all- get a name! They''re free.
Second, what did Microsoft do that was illegal??
Finally, obviously if they make shitty products, they wouldn''t be as successful as they are. Why are they so successful if they have so many problems??

'I'm sorry Dave. I'm Afraid I can't let you do that...'

quote: Original post by Fredric
Does anyone have any VALID reasons for disliking MS??

How about Steve Jobs, the people at Sun, or maybe those who were making money selling Netscape. (I mean, everyone dislikes their competition when you''re trying to earn a living.)

As for the rest of us, if Microsoft really is a monopoly and is hurting innovation, then we all have reasons to be angry. (I am NOT the person to say that they are or are not, however. I know nothing!)

If you''re implying that there are alot of people who just seem to hate Microsoft without good reason, I''d have to agree. As I mentioned earlier, some people just jump on the bandwagon. This doesn''t apply to everyone, however, and everyone is entitled to feel the way they feel.

I think I''m helping stray a bit off topic, so I''ll shut up now.

Jesse Chounard

quote: Original post by Fredric

Anonymous Poster-
First of all- get a name! They're free.

Sorry, it was me.

quote:
Second, what did Microsoft do that was illegal??

Quite a few things, unfortunetly they don't get a lot of press and it's hard to find more than a few tidbits.
First - They broke a deal over and over that they made with the govenrment in the early/mid 90s. The details are sketchy and if anyone knows of a good article on this let me know.
Second - Giving away IE was flat out illegal. The law is something like you cannot take a loss solely to put another company out of business. There is no way in hell that MS would have given IE for free if not directly competing w/ netscape.
Third - This may not be completely illegal on it's own, but it's monopolistic abuse. MS makes deals w/ computer retailers. If the retailers don't agree to only sell computers with windows OS's, then MS will either charge unbelievably higher prices or not sell them windows at all.

quote:
Finally, obviously if they make shitty products, they wouldn't be as successful as they are. Why are they so successful if they have so many problems??

There have been books written on the subject (I suggest Accidental Empires for starters). Basically, it all started when they got endorsed by IBM. From there on, they basically had a monopoly on the PC OS's. This is where they started their paying for bug fixes practice. The cam out with new versions of DOS all the time, and newer software required newer versions. They were raking in so much damn money, it wasn't too difficult to expand into other software markets. There was no real reason to put all your effort into the next version, becuase you could always add that feature/bug fix later. If you had used any windows version before 3.1 you would know waht I was talking about. If you would like any more clarifaction let me know.
I admit that a lot of MS haters just 'jumped on the bandwagon' without really knowing that much, but ironically so also did you ignorantly jump on a bandwagon.

Mike


Edited by - Vetinari on May 12, 2000 12:04:50 AM